Fearing the Black Body

The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia

By: Sabrina Strings

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

How the female body has been racialized for more than 200 years

There is an obesity epidemic in this country, and poor Black women are particularly stigmatized as "diseased" and a burden on the public health-care system. This is only the most recent incarnation of the fear of fat Black women, which Sabrina Strings shows took root more than 200 years ago.

Strings weaves together an eye-opening historical narrative ranging from the Renaissance to the current moment, analyzing important works of art, newspaper and magazine articles, and scientific literature and medical journals - where fat bodies were once praised - showing that fat phobia, as it relates to Black women, did not originate with medical findings, but with the Enlightenment era belief that fatness was evidence of "savagery" and racial inferiority.

The author argues that the contemporary ideal of slenderness is, at its very core, racialized and racist. Indeed, it was not until the early 20th century, when racialized attitudes against fatness were already entrenched in the culture, that the medical establishment began its crusade against obesity. An important and original work, Fearing the Black Body argues convincingly that fat phobia isn't about health at all, but rather a means of using the body to validate race, class, and gender prejudice.

©2019 New York University (P)2020 Tantor

Life altering read

The revelation of where fat phobia comes from and it’s deep ties to the slave trade releases the reader from so much body shame.

fat phobia is rooted in yt supremacy

the detail this book goes into about the origins of fat phobia is incredible. may we free ourselves from the ridiculous notion that fat is bad.

A must read

I’ve been on a journey to understand fat phobia and become educated about weight politics. This book truly is the must read for understanding the intersectionality of this topic.

very educational

It felt very thorough, and clearly explained the history and repercussionsof the topic. I learned a lot from it.

So informative!

This book is absolutely fascinating. Strings uses sociological and philosophical theory to analyze archival records in tracing the gendered and racialized history of meanings of body size and its use in social control. If you want to know where diet culture came from, definitely read this book.